Brown abandoned by Hawaii

He stared at it, watched it glisten. Bright, shiny, 10 carats, worth its weight in gold — or, at least, the $60,000 in out-of-state tuition for University of Hawaii undergraduates.

Spring Valley’s 6-foot, 170-pound safety thought that soon enough, he’d walk down the aisle with the Hawaii Warriors.

But here he is, all dressed in white, with nowhere to go.

Left at the altar.

The anger has passed at the complicated situation, which found Brown on what he thought was the receiving end of a full football scholarship, only to have it rescinded.

“At first, it was kinda like (expletive) the world,” the senior said. “But I knew what I was getting into with recruiting. It was like, ‘If this is how Hawaii feels, I just have to prove them wrong.’ “

The story began with a simple recruiting letter — just one out of a stack of hundreds. Brown is a viable Division I prospect, with solid high school statistics, good grades and character, and impressive showings at recruiting combines.

Scout.com has him as its 40th-ranked safety, giving him three stars (out of five). The Web site’s West Coast recruiting director, Brandon Huffman, touted his potential.

“He is a Division I prospect,” Huffman said. “I don’t know if ‘major’ is the word to use. He doesn’t have the weight you want from a D-I safety, but he can get it. But he is a guy you want on scholarship at a school.”

Fast-forward to Sept. 15, Hawaii at UNLV. The Hawaii coaching staff wooed the Browns at Sam’s Town over the weekend, told them how much they wanted Corbin to travel the roughly 3,000 miles to play for the Warriors.

On the field during the game, Hawaii graduate assistant Terry Duffield approached Brown’s father, Greg, and said, “We really love your son,” according to Greg Brown. Better yet, the Browns watched as the Hawaii football community embraced Corbin — “Nobody had gone out of their way to make him feel so welcome,” Greg Brown said.

Over the weekend, Corbin made his decision. The following Monday, Brown called the Hawaii coaching staff and took himself off the recruiting block.

He was a Warrior. Or so he thought.

Then the phone calls stopped being answered, e-mails went unreturned. Days passed.

Finally, in late October, Greg Brown received an e-mail from Hawaii assistant coach Rich Miano, telling Corbin to keep his recruiting options open.

Apparently, according to Greg Brown — Hawaii media relations officials said no one on the football staff could comment — nobody on the coaching staff had bothered to show Hawaii head coach June Jones any of Corbin’s game film.

“These are 16- and 17-year-old kids, and you come into their living rooms, you call them all the time, you text them 50 times a day and then you drop them, never talk to them again,” Greg Brown said. “If they’d said, ‘Corbin, we decided to go in a different direction,’ if they were honest — that’s all we want. I mean … they toy with their emotions, they get them all fired up. That’s not right.”

So Brown de-committed from an offer he might never have actually had. And he went back on the recruiting block.

And he waits.

And waits.

And waits.

Brown’s recruiting status is still up in the air — teams want him, he wants them, but nothing is set in stone. Oregon State, Washington State and Stanford all are in the mix, and soon he’ll begin taking official visits.

After all this — the courtship, the proposal that wasn’t a proposal — Brown still has his heart set on college football.

“That’s tough,” Brown said. “I’ve never actually thought about myself not playing football in college. Never.”

Contact reporter Jon Gold at jgold@reviewjournal.com or (702) 380-4587.